"roof of their mouths called the vomeronasal (or Jacobson's) organ. When a cat wrinkles its muzzle, lowers its chin, and lets its tongue hang a bit, it is opening the passage to the vomeronasal. This is called ""gaping"", ""sneering"", ""snake mouth"", or ""flehming"". Gaping is the equivalent of the Flehmen response in other animals, such as dogs, horses and big cats. A cat has about twenty-four movable vibrissae (""whiskers""), in four sets on each upper lip on either side of its nose (some cats may have more). There are also a few on each cheek, tufts over the eyes, bristles"
"locations on an animal. These groups are relatively well conserved across land mammals, and somewhat less well conserved between land and marine mammals (though commonalities are certainly present). Species-specific differences are also found. Vibrissae of different groups may vary in their anatomical parameters and in their operation, and it is generally assumed that they serve different purposes in accordance with their different locations on the body. Many land mammals, for example rats and hamsters, have an arrangement of cranial (of the skull) vibrissae that includes the supraorbital (above the eyes), genal (of the cheeks), and mystacial (where a moustache would"
"follicle-sinus complex. Vibrissae are blood filled sinuses bound by a dense connective tissue capsule with sensitive nerve endings that provides haptic feedback to the manatee. Usually vibrissae are found on the facial regions of terrestrial and non-sirenian aquatic animals and are called whiskers. Manatees, however, have vibrissae all over their bodies. The vibrissae located in their facial region are roughly 30 times denser than the vibrissae on the rest of their body. Their mouth consists of very mobile prehensile lips which are used for grasping food and objects. The vibrissae on these lips are turned outward during grasping and are"
"vibrissae. The fur is soft and thick, with the upper parts of the body a brownish color with a yellowish or reddish tinge, and the under parts white to buffy colored. The prehensile tail is bicolored and lacks fur at the very tip, and the feet are fairly broad. The feet are specially adapted for climbing, with the outer of the five toes on each foot being large and more-or-less opposable. This mouse can grip a stem with each hindfoot and its tail, leaving the forepaws free for collecting food. It can also use its tail for balance as it"
"The frequency of foveal whisking is high, ranging between 15 and 25 Hz, and rats can readily switch between foveal and exploratory whisking. Many land and marine mammals possess facial vibrissae (derived from the Latin ""vibrio"" meaning to vibrate). For example, rats and hamsters, have an arrangement of cranial (of the skull) vibrissae that includes the supraorbital (above the eyes), genal (of the cheeks), and mystacial (where a moustache would be) vibrissae, as well as mandibular (of the jaw) vibrissae under the snout. Mystacial vibrissae are generally described as being further divided into two sub-groups: the large macrovibrissae that protrude"
"these whiskers is not random: they form an ordered grid of arcs (columns) and rows, with shorter whiskers at the front and longer whiskers at the rear (see images). In the mouse, gerbil, hamster, rat, guinea pig, rabbit, and cat, each individual follicle is innervated by 100–200 primary afferent nerve cells. These cells serve an even larger number of mechanoreceptors of at least eight distinct types. Accordingly, even small deflections of the vibrissal hair can evoke a sensory response in the animal. Rats and mice typically have approximately 30 macrovibrissae on each side of the face, with whisker lengths up"
"can be identified in the accompanying image of the rat, but it can also be seen that there is no clear physical boundary between them. This difficulty in delineating the sub-groups visually is reflected by similarly weak boundaries between them in anatomical and functional parameters, though the distinction is nonetheless referred to ubiquitously in scientific literature and is considered useful in analysis. Apart from cranial vibrissae, other groups are found elsewhere on the body. Many land mammals, including domestic cats, also have carpal (of the wrist) vibrissae on the underside of the leg just above the paws. Whilst these five"
"Whiskers Whiskers or vibrissae (; singular: vibrissa; ) are a type of mammalian hair that are typically characterised, anatomically, by their long length, large and well-innervated hair follicle, and by having an identifiable representation in the somatosensory cortex of the brain. They are specialised for tactile sensing (other types of hair operate as more crude tactile sensors). Vibrissae grow in various places on most mammals, including all primates except humans. In medicine, the term vibrissae also refers to the thick hairs found inside human nostrils. Vibrissae (derived from the Latin ""vibrio"" meaning to vibrate) typically grow in groups in different"
"these groups function quite differently. The vibrissal hair is usually thicker and stiffer than other types of (pelagic) hair but, like other hairs, the shaft consists of an inert material (keratin) and contains no nerves. However, vibrissae are different from other hair structures because they grow from a special hair follicle incorporating a capsule of blood called a blood sinus which is heavily innervated by sensory nerves. The mystacial macrovibrissae are shared by a large group of land and marine mammals (see images), and it is this group that has received by far the most scientific study. The arrangement of"
"to around 50 mm in (laboratory) rats, 30 mm in (laboratory) mice, and a slightly larger number of microvibrissae. Thus, an estimate for the total number of sensory nerve cells serving the mystacial vibrissal array on the face of a rat or mouse might be 25,000. Rats and mice are considered to be ""whisker specialists"", but marine mammals may make even greater investment in their vibrissal sensory system. Seal whiskers, which are similarly arrayed across the mystacial region, are each served by around 10 times as many nerve fibres as those in rats and mice, so that the total number"
"major groups (supraorbital, genal, mystacial, mandibular, carpal) are often reported in studies of land mammals, several other groups have been reported more occasionally (for instance, see ). Marine mammals can have substantially different vibrissal arrangements. For instance, cetaceans have lost the vibrissae around the snout and gained vibrissae around their blowholes, whereas every single one of the body hairs of the Florida manatee (see image) may be a vibrissa. Other marine mammals (such as seals and sea-lions) have cranial vibrissal groups that appear to correspond closely to those described for land mammals (see the accompanying image of a seal), although"
"water, and will drink copious amounts of it. The main difference between human and dog touch is the presence of specialized whiskers known as vibrissae. Vibrissae are present above the dog’s eyes, below their jaw, and on their muzzle. They are sophisticated sensing organs. Vibrissae are more rigid and embedded much more deeply in the skin than other hairs and have a greater number of receptor cells at their base. They can detect air currents, subtle vibrations, and objects in the dark. They provide an early warning system for objects that might strike the face or eyes, and probably help"
"be) vibrissae, as well as mandibular (of the jaw) vibrissae under the snout. These groups, all of which are visible in the accompanying image of the Patagonian fox, are well conserved across land mammals though anatomical and functional details vary with the animal's lifestyle. Mystacial vibrissae are generally described as being further divided into two sub-groups: the large macrovibrissae that protrude to the sides and the small microvibrissae below the nostrils that mostly point downwards. Most simply described, macrovibrissae are large, motile and used for spatial sensing, whereas microvibrissae are small, immotile and used for object identification. These two sub-groups"
"this name dates back to 1771. Another name for the serval is ""tierboskat"", Afrikaans for tiger-bush-cat. The serval is a slender, medium-sized cat; it stands at the shoulder and weighs , but females tend to be lighter. The head-and-body length is typically between . Males tend to be sturdier than females. Prominent characteristics include the small head, large ears, spotted and striped coat, long legs and a black-tipped tail that is around long. The serval has the longest legs of any cat relative to its body size, largely due to the greatly elongated metatarsal bones in the feet. The toes"
"co-ordinated with those of the head and body. Generally, vibrissae are considered to mediate a tactile sense, complementary to that of skin. This is presumed to be advantageous in particular to animals that cannot always rely on sight to navigate or to find food, for example, nocturnal animals or animals which forage in muddy waters. Sensory function aside, movements of the vibrissae may also indicate something of the state of mind of the animal, and the whiskers play a role in social behaviour of rats. The sensory function of vibrissae is an active research area—experiments to establish the capabilities of"
"was applied to other species as well. A few of these species included rats, cats, turtles, cows, and chickens. Rats do not depend upon visual cues like some of the other species tested. Their nocturnal habits lead them to seek food largely by smell. When moving about in the dark, they respond to tactual cues from their stiff whiskers (vibrissae) located on the snout. Hooded rats tested on the visual cliff show little preference for either side of the visual cliff apparatus as long as they could feel the glass with their vibrissae. When placed upon the glass over the"
"follicles of some groups of vibrissae in some species are motile. Generally, the supraorbital, genal and macrovibrissae are motile, whereas the microvibrissae are not. This is reflected in anatomical reports that have identified musculature associated with the macrovibrissae that is absent for the microvibrissae. A small muscle 'sling' is attached to each macrovibrissa and can move it more-or-less independently of the others, whilst larger muscles in the surrounding tissue move many or all of the macrovibrissae together. Amongst those species with motile macrovibrissae, some (rats, mice, flying squirrels, gerbils, chincillas, hamsters, shrews, porcupines, opossums) move them back and forth periodically"
"relatively small portion of the animal, they dominate the somatotopic map. The barrels that correspond to the major facial whiskers (mystacial vibrissae) are contained within the posteromedial barrel subfield (PMBSF). The barrels here are the largest and most elliptical in shape and have a striking topographical organization that is identical to that of the whiskers; they are organized into 5 rows of 4-7 large whiskers that run close to parallel with the bridge of the nose. The organisation of the mystacial vibrissae and corresponding barrels is so consistent that there is a naming convention to identify each whisker in rats"
"fur is typically grayish-brown on the dorsal (back) side and more gray in color on the ventral (front) side. The tail is typically black-tipped. The new population found by WWF in 2010 has an overall lighter color, along with reddish or rusty patches near the hands and feet on the dorsal side of the arms and legs. This population also has a red tail, which darkens at the end. Vibrissae are found above the eyes (superciliary), above the mouth (buccal), under the lower jaw (genal), near the top of the jaw (interramal), and on the wrist (carpal). Like mouse lemurs,"
"the modern Viverrinae are the high development of the perineal scent glands, the marked anteroposterior elongation of the entotympanic chamber of the compound bulla and the carnassial form of the cheek-teeth. They have excellent hearing and vision. Their flesh-shearing carnassial teeth are relatively undeveloped. Viverrids are amongst the primitive families of the Carnivora, with skeletons very similar to those of fossils dating back to the Eocene, up to 50 million years ago. They are variable in form, but generally resemble long-nosed cats. Most have retractile or partially retractile claws, a baculum. The Viverrinae range in size from the African linsang"
"a pair (or a few pairs) of large seta (bristles) called 'vibrissae' and sometimes several or even a complete series along a ridge extending upward from the vibrissae. The latter setae are in Russian texts also called vibrissal bristles not facial bristles. The antennae are divided into two basic morphological types that are the basis of the distinction between the two suborders and their denomination. In Nematocera, they are pluriarticulate, threadlike or of feathery type, composed of 7-15 undifferentiated items. In Brachycera the antennae consist of up to six items, of which the first three are well-developed. In most of"
"the vibrissae arrives in the brain via the trigeminal nerve and is delivered first into the trigeminal sensory complex of brainstem. From there, the most studied pathways are those leading up through parts of thalamus and into barrel cortex, though other major pathways through the superior colliculus in midbrain (a major visual structure in visual animals) and the cerebellum, to name but a couple, are increasingly coming under scrutiny. Neuroscientists, and other researchers, studying sensory systems favour the whisker system for a number of reasons (see Barrel cortex), not least the simple fact that laboratory rats and mice are whisker,"
"braincase, large eye sockets, retractable claws, and specialized carnivorous dentition have also led some taxonomists to associate it with the felids. In 1939, William King Gregory and Milo Hellman placed the fossa in its own subfamily within Felidae, the Cryptoproctinae. George Gaylord Simpson placed it back in Viverridae in 1945, still within its own subfamily, yet conceded it had many cat-like characteristics. In 1993, Géraldine Veron and François Catzeflis published a DNA hybridization study suggesting that the fossa was more closely related to mongooses (family Herpestidae) than to cats or civets. However, in 1995, Veron's morphological study once again grouped"
"least 8.5 million years ago starting with ""G. thierryi"", followed by ""G. victoriae"" 3.98–6.01 million years ago. Genets are slender cat-like animals with a long body, a long ringed tail, large ears, a pointed muzzle and partly retractile claws. Their fur is spotted, but melanistic genets have also been recorded. They have musk glands and anal sacs. They also have perineal glands. All genet species have a dark stripe along the spine; they differ in fur color and spot pattern. Their size varies between species from in head-to-body length with long tails; their tails are almost as long as head"
"is closely related to the genus ""Viverra"". It was estimated that the ""Civettictis""-""Viverra"" clade diverged from ""Viverricula"" around 16.2 Mya; the African civet split from ""Viverra"" 12.3 Mya. The authors suggested that the subfamily Viverrinae should be bifurcated into Genettinae (""Poiana"" and ""Genetta"") and Viverrinae (""Civettictis"", ""Viverra"" and ""Viverricula""). The following cladogram is based on this study. The generic name ""Civettictis"" is a fusion of the French word ""civette"" and the Greek word ""ictis"", meaning ""weasel"". The specific name ""civetta"" and the common name ""civet"" come from the French ""civette"" or the Arabic ""zabād"" or ""sinnawr al-zabād"" (""civet cat""). The"
"Viperinae The Viperinae, or viperines, are a subfamily of venomous vipers endemic to Europe, Asia and Africa. They are distinguished by their lack of the heat-sensing pit organs that characterize their sister group, the subfamily Crotalinae. Currently, 12 genera and 66 species are recognized. Most are tropical and subtropical, although one species, ""Vipera berus"", even occurs within the Arctic Circle. Members of this subfamily range in size from ""Bitis schneideri"", which grows to a maximum total length (body + tail) of only , to ""Bitis gabonica"", which reaches a maximum total length of over . Most species are terrestrial, but"
"in kittenhood, feline OCD, Vestibular Disease and Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome. Siamese cat The Siamese cat is one of the first distinctly recognized breeds of Asian cat. Derived from the Wichianmat landrace, one of several varieties of cat native to Thailand (formerly known as Siam), the Siamese became one of the most popular breeds in Europe and North America in the 19th century. The carefully refined modern Siamese is characterized by blue almond-shaped eyes; a triangular head shape; large ears; an elongated, slender, and muscular body; and point colouration. (Aside from the colouration, it bears little resemblance to the original stock,"
"Feline viral rhinotracheitis Feline viral rhinotracheitis (FVR) is an upper respiratory or pulmonary infection of cats caused by ""feline herpesvirus 1"", of the family ""Herpesviridae"". It is also commonly referred to as feline influenza, feline coryza, and feline pneumonia but, as these terms describe other very distinct collections of respiratory symptoms, they are misnomers for the condition. Viral respiratory diseases in cats can be serious, especially in catteries and kennels. Causing one-half of the respiratory diseases in cats, FVR is the most important of these diseases and is found worldwide. The other important cause of feline respiratory disease is ""feline"
"Feline calicivirus Feline calicivirus (FCV) is a virus of the family Caliciviridae that causes disease in cats. It is one of the two important viral causes of respiratory infection in cats, the other being feline herpesvirus. FCV can be isolated from about 50% of cats with upper respiratory infections. Cheetahs are the other species of the family Felidae known to become infected naturally. Different strains of FCV can vary in virulence (the degree of pathogenicity within a group or species of microorganisms or viruses as indicated by case fatality rates and/or the ability of the organism to invade the tissues"
"pregnant cats as it can cause developmental malformations. An alternative and effective drug is febendazole. Giardiasis Giardiasis, popularly known as beaver fever, is a parasitic disease caused by ""Giardia lamblia"". About 10% of those infected have no symptoms. When symptoms occur they may include diarrhea, abdominal pain, and weight loss. Vomiting, blood in the stool, and fever are less common. Symptoms usually begin 1 to 3 weeks after exposure and without treatment may last up to six weeks. Giardia usually spreads when ""Giardia lamblia"" cysts within feces contaminate food or water which is then eaten or drunk. It may also"
"Viverra Viverra is a mammalian genus that was first nominated and described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as comprising several species including the large Indian civet. The genus was subordinated to the viverrid family by John Edward Gray in 1821. ""Viverra"" species are distinguished externally from the other genera of the Viverrinae by the structure of the fore feet, of which the 3rd and 4th digits are provided with lobes of skin, which act as protective sheaths for the retractile claws. They have a long and narrow skull, with narrow, nearly parallel-sided, not strongly constricted waist. The postorbital processes are"
"relative to the flow, not the shape, however, seems to be the most important factor. The vibrissae of some otariids grow quite long—those of the Antarctic fur seal can reach . Walruses have the most vibrissae, at 600–700 individual hairs. These are important for detecting their prey on the muddy sea floor. In addition to foraging, vibrissae may also play a role in navigation; spotted seals appear to use them to detect breathing holes in the ice. Before diving, pinnipeds typically exhale to empty their lungs of half the air and then close their nostrils and throat cartilages to protect"
"to the sides, and the small microvibrissae below the nostrils that mostly point downwards. The macrovibrissae are generally large, motile and used for spatial sensing, whereas microvibrissae are small, immotile and used for object identification. Generally, the supraorbital, genal and macrovibrissae are reported to be motile, whilst the microvibrissae are not. This is reflected in anatomical reports that have identified musculature associated with the macrovibrissae that is absent for the microvibrissae. The effector system generating whisking comprises a set of “extrinsic” muscles controlling movements of the mystacial pad and a group of “intrinsic” (follicular) muscles, producing vibrissa protraction. The extrinsic"